


Intercepted Howlers and Insanity

by Diary



Series: First Year, Second Year [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Awkward Conversations, Bechdel Test Fail, Changing Tenses, Friendship/Love, Gen, Gen Fic, Hurt/Comfort, POV Multiple, Prisoner of Azkaban AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-05
Updated: 2016-05-05
Packaged: 2018-06-06 11:49:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6752734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diary/pseuds/Diary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reposted. A brief look at Luna and Neville during her second year and his third. Complete.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intercepted Howlers and Insanity

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Harry Potter.

From the bathroom stall, Neville gritted out, “Luna, would you please go away?”

“No,” she answered.

Sighing, he looked up at ceiling.

“You can’t stay cooped up in there forever, you know.”

“You’re being loony,” he snapped.

“Perhaps,” she answered, “but if insanity is trying to help a friend, I imagine it can’t be as bad as its reputation suggests.”

“Luna, please, just go away. I’ll see you at dinner, alright? I promise.”

“Will you swear on your mother’s wrappers?”

Neville glared up at the ceiling.

“Yeah,” he finally answered. “If I don’t meet you at lunch, you can take all the wrappers my mum’s given me.”

“Very well,” she responded, and he heard her standing up. “I don’t want your wrappers, you know. I just want my friend to let me try to help.”

With those soft words, she left.

Last night, he’d been too numb to do anything but crawl into a sleeping bag with Luna and fall asleep. In the morning, though, the horror of the situation hit him. Because of him, a boy had almost been killed.

He’d left her in the sleeping bag and snuck off to the bathroom.

Neville closed his eyes, took deep breaths, and ignored the tears.

0

Earlier…

Ginny notices Neville Longbottom isn’t at their table.

She looks over at the Ravenclaw table and sees Luna sitting by herself and watching the ceiling intently.

Feeling uneasy, Ginny gets up and walks over. She notices in distaste the wide berth Luna’s housemates are giving her.

“Hello, Luna,” she says.

“Hello, Ginny,” is the airily reply. “I’m waiting for Edward, Mrs Longbottom’s owl to arrive. Would you like to sit down?”

She does.

Luna’s wearing her wand tucked between her left ear as usual, but otherwise, today, she looks like any other student. There’s no weird jewellery, turning her tie into a bowtie or headband, or outrageous hats.

“Is Mrs Longbottom sending you something?”

“No,” Luna answers. “She’s sending it for Neville.”

“Where is Neville?”

“The bathroom,” Luna answers. “He left before I woke up, but Sir Nick told me where he went. Later, I’m going to see if Seamus will trade his chocolate frogs for my Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum.”

They woke up almost an hour ago, Ginny knows. Everyone was escorted back to their houses to take a quick shower, get changed, and gather their books and homework. “You mean Neville’s been in the bathroom all this time?”

“Yes,” Luna answers. “He’s very upset, you know. He’d never intentionally hurt your brother.”

“I know that,” Ginny assures her. “Ron isn’t upset. In fact, he’s quite enjoying the attention. Luna, which bathroom is Neville in?”

Something has to be done. As horrible as it was to learn how close a mass murderer came to hurting one of her brothers, if Ginny blames anyone, besides Sirius Black, it’s the stupid painting replacing the Fat Lady.

“There he is,” Luna says, and while Ginny’s looking around for Neville, Luna levitates a piece of salmon into the air and lowers it when one of the owls comes over.

“Hello, Edward,” Luna says. She reaches out to pet the owl while he eats the salmon. When she starts to undo the letter attached to him, however, he squawks and backs away.

“Edward,” Luna calmly says, “I’m Neville’s friend. You know he won’t find me getting his mail for him.”

The owl seems suspicious, but she pushes the salmon towards him and continues petting him until he resumes eating.

After the letter come into view, Ginny feels her eyes widen. “That’s a howler,” she says.

Luna puts the red envelope into a box. “Yes,” she answers in her calm, dreamy voice while closing and locking the lid. She points her wand at the box. “It won’t activate until it comes into his presence. If you’ll excuse me, I need to take this to my chest. Good day, Ginny,” she says.

“Good day, Luna,” Ginny answers.

Watching Luna walk away, Ginny reflects, Luna may be peculiar, but her bravely and loyalty is something to be admired.

0

Present…

Harry spotted Luna talking to Seamus.

“Luna,” he called.

She looked up and gave him a vague smile.

Going over, he asked, “Is Neville okay? Ginny told Ron that he was in one of the bathrooms, but she doesn’t know which.”

“It’s the one next to Myrtle’s,” Luna answered. She handed Seamus a package of Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum. “He’ll come out during dinner.”

“What, tonight? He can’t spend-”

“No,” she interrupted. “Lunch.”

That’s only a little bit better, he thought.

“I have to get to class,” Seamus said. He handed Luna a package of chocolate frogs. “See ya, Harry. Luna.”

“Right,” Harry said. “See you, Seamus.”

Once he’s gone, Harry said, “This is ridiculous. No one actually blames him for-”

“He blames himself,” Luna replied. She stared at him. “I don’t think there’s much I can really do. But I know that if I blamed myself for something I wasn’t responsible for, Neville would try everything he could to make things better. He’d likely try even if I were responsible.”

A realisation came over Harry.

Luna’s favourite sweets were Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, and whenever Neville went to Hogsmeade, she’d sent money with him to get some for her. Neville’s favourite sweets are chocolate frogs.

“Do you want me to take those to him,” he asked. “No offence, Luna, but you’re a girl. Maybe another boy will have better luck in getting through to him.”

“That’s very nice of you.” She handed the package to him.  “Thank you, Harry.”

0  

“Hey, Neville,” Harry said. “We need to talk.”

“I didn’t mean to lose the passwords,” Neville’s muffled voice said.

To Harry’s horror, it sounded like Neville might be crying.

“Look, no one blames you,” Harry said. Leaning against a sink, he promised, “Really. Ron’s told the story over-and-over, again. And the twins are trying to- well, I’m not actually sure what they’re trying to do, but it isn’t going after you.”

Sighing, he continued, “Neville, Sirius Black is an evil man who killed my parents and their friend. I hate him for what he did. He’s very clever, and even if you hadn’t lost the passwords, he’d’ve found a way in. He’s already taken so much from me, and I don’t want him to take anymore. He’d probably be happy if he knew that you were locked in here, avoiding everyone, especially Luna.”

For a long moment, there was silence, and just as Harry was about to try to say something else, the door clicked open.

After Neville had washed his face, Harry handed him the chocolate frogs. “Luna got these for you,” he said. “Let’s go back to the tower so you can get changed.”

“Thanks, Harry,” Neville said.

“Don’t mention it,” Harry replied.

Suddenly, Neville asked, “Aren’t you supposed to be in Transfiguration?”

“That’s what the twins are doing,” Harry said. “Um, I don’t know about your classes this morning, but don’t worry about missing Transfiguration. They’ve been finding ways all morning to get Ron’s classes cancelled or, at least, postponed. Although, I’m not exactly sure how they’re doing it.”

0

Bracing himself, Neville sat down. “Hey. I’m sorry.”

Luna looked up from her magazine. “It’s okay. I haven’t taken it personally. Would you like to try to get permission to go the greenhouse tonight?”

“We can try, but we probably won’t get it. Professor McGonagall is going to be angry at me for some time.”

“We can go to the library until she stops,” Luna suggested. “I can read Professor Hagrid’s book while you look at ones on herbology.”

Neville shuddered at the memory of the aforementioned book. Gran had had to use an oversized rat trap to keep it from eating Trevor, and for once, Neville had shared her annoyance when Luna had flooed over, taken one look at the maniac book, and known exactly how to tame it. They’d promptly sent it home with her, and at school, he told her, since she liked it so much, she could keep it in her dorm when he didn’t have to use it for class.

Smiling, he said, “That sounds great, Luna.”


End file.
